I wouldn't say that I've mellowed. I'm less mellow, perhaps.

The word feminism needs to be taken back. It needs to be reclaimed in a way that is inclusive of men.

I wouldn't have known when I was a teenager that when I was coming up to being a sixty-year-old woman that I'd be making music, I'd be recording music, talking about music, and incorporating my views on the world into the music-making. So it's a very rarefied place to be, and I'm very grateful for that.

We all come from women, and there's something extraordinary about the mothers who raised us.

Life expectancy in many parts of Africa can be something around the age of thirty five to thirty eight. I mean you're very fortunate if you live to that age. In fact when I went to Uganda for the first time one of the things that occurred to me was that I saw very few elderly people.

In a sense, the music business and I haven't always been the best of bedfellows. Artists often have to fight their corner. Your music goes through these filters of record labels and media, and you're hoping you'll find someone who'll help you get your work into the world.

I'm not intensely private - I talk a great deal about my life and my work - I just don't play the game to excess.